The Road (John Hillcoat, 2009)

After hearing very promising things about ‘The Road’ as a novel (by acclaimed author of ‘No Country For Old Men’, Cormac MacCarthy) I had high expectations for the film as I thoroughly enjoyed the latter, unfortunately, my expectations were not met.

The Road follows a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they strive to stay alive travelling south towards the coast, whilst being faced with the threat of cannibalism and starvation. Years and years have passed since an unknown apocalyptic event has taken place. It has shaped the world and humanity left within it, and the means of survival become more scarce, forcing “the bad guys” to find alternative ways of preventing the inevitable, death.
I do champion the narrative for never enclosing the details that were involved in the apocalyptic event; however, this did limit my connection with the characters. Without any hint of hope throughout the duration of the film, I found it difficult to be optimistic about their survival knowing their demise was highly probable, given the circumstances. To further lessen my connection with the character’s situation, Kodi Smit-McPhee’s performance as the son irritated me. His unwillingness to listen or learn and his whiny performance severed any emotion I could have felt towards his character.

It seemed as though the film tried too hard to pull on the heart-strings, so much so that it was lost on me, and I didn’t buy into it. It was too simple; a flashback of his wife (Charlize Theron) playing the piano and then the man stumbles upon a piano and cries. I felt as though I was being spoon fed the emotion I was supposed to be feeling, yet never quite reacting to it. I am hoping the book will help me connect to the emotion of the story were the film failed to do so – particularly the father/son relationship. I’m not claiming that the relationship was void of emotion, I personally felt as though the father would have been better alone. They stand in as the contemporary pairing of the same relationship seen in The Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) – The man’s actions display the true nature of selfish survival within a diminished society, while the son is a constant (and somewhat annoying) voice of morality that has been lost on the older generation who remember a forgotten world.

The cinematography of Javier Aguirresarobe was outstanding. The dystopian road and landscape was thought provoking. It was easy to imagine the landscape in such disarray even without the events of an apocalypse. It is devastatingly elegant.

I wasn’t balled over by The Road; the pace, the events, the emotion left me disengaged from the characters, and therefore the narrative itself. However, if a slow-paced, post-apocalyptic, “heart wrenching” film is what you’re looking for, then look no further.